Acknowledge your own humanity: you have theright to pleasure and a right to relaxation.
Accept and show our vulnerability. We are notmachines, when we deny the vulnerable aspects ofour nature, they can easily resurface in more
problematic ways.

Lead as healthy a lifestyle
as you can:• Get adequate sleep and rest to maintain yourenergy levels.
• Eat a healthy balanced diet, lots of fresh fruit andveg, cut out junk food and don’t skip meals.
• Get regular aerobic exercise - eg. swimming,cycling.
• Be aware of your intake of stimulant andrecreational drugs, and whether it’s helping orhindering your work.
Another technique is Core Energy Management(CEM). A set of simple mind/body techniques tomanage your physical/emotional energy. CEM uses
visualisation to stimulate endorphin production andenergy work adapted from Taoism. It’s useful to help
prevent burnout, reduce stress (ideal before andduring an action), and generally keep people
energised and positive. See:/www.adrianharris.org/cem.htm
Learn some simple breathing
exercises - in the west we have atendency to breathe very
shallowly - however it isphysiologically impossible to be
stressed and anxious if you arebreathing deeply
Take up Tai Chi, Chi Gong, meditation, or yoga(all good for getting the habit of breathing deeply)
Get a massage, learn how to give massages.
Massage is a great way to relax and find
comfort.

Play and be with children - rediscover yourspontaneity - notice how effortlessly in the moment
young children are - join them by engaging fully intheir games.
Celebrate individual and group achievements.
Create positive spaces, events and alternatives (likeClimate Camp!).
Starhawk has said that in her experience
activists who stay completely away from a spiritual
practice of some kind, sooner or later reach aburnout point, whereas those who do have practices
they return to consistently know how to reinvigorate
themselves and keep the fire burning.
A spiritual practice could be anything frommeditation to walks in the countryside, frompermaculture and gardening to being entranced byoil rainbows on wet tarmac. Basically anything that
nurtures our sense of our own intrinsic worth andbeauty and the intrinsic worth and beauty of all lifeon Earth.
Explore your creativity - it’s often said what acreative group of people activists are. How about
experimenting with your creativity in areas that don’t
involve outwitting the police, or foiling corporate
shenanigans?
Ultimately, at the end of theday, there is no one size fits allsolution. The process of healingthat is involved in avoiding or
coping with burnout will be as
unique and singular as each oneof us is. We have to follow ourpassions, there is no point taking
up an activity just because you read about it in ahandout, for such a healing process to be truly
effective you need to make use of a combination ofactivities and practices that really grab you andyour passions.

...TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER...
For more info: Activist Trauma Support Tel: 07962 406940
Email: activist_trauma@riseup.net www.activist-trauma.net

Sustainable Activism & Avoiding Burnout
Burnout is a political andmovement issue. Every year
committed activists suffer anddrop out of our community
because they have burnt out.
To a great extent burnout issimply accepted as a byproduct of being involved inactivism. However as we workin groups, if a person issuffering from burnout, it willtend to have a negative affecton the group as a whole.
The way we behave to both ourselves and thepeople around us has profound impacts. An
enjoyable and effective action or process can easily
be turned into a negative one. This is in no way
meant to blame or attack people suffering fromburnout, it is more to emphasise the fact that weneed to support each other more effectively. We
don’t have to accept burnout as a fact of activist life.
We don’t have to continue to lose valuable membersof our community.
This workshop/handout begins from the premisethat the most effective way of transforming oursociety and so halting it’s destruction of theEarth, is through transforming ourselves,
and the way we interact with botheach other and the Earth herself.
This, in part, is what ourmovement is about, doing
things in different, more
effective, and most importantly,
less destructive ways. Reevaluating our approach to ourown mental, emotional andphysical health can play a large partin enabling our activism to become
more sustainable, and thereby help us to
avoid burning out, and so continue our resistance.

What is burnout?
“Burnout is defined, and subjectively
experienced, as a state of physical, emotionaland mental exhaustion caused by long term
involvement in situations that are emotionallydemanding. The emotional
demands are often caused
by a combination of very
high expectations andchronic situational stresses.
Burnout is accompanied byan array of symptoms
including physical depletion,
feelings of helplessness andhopelessness, disillusionment and thedevelopment of negative self-concept andnegative attitudes towards work, people and life
itself. In its extreme form, burnout represents a
breaking point beyond which the ability to copewith the environment is severely hampered.”from Career Burnout - Causes and Cures,
Ayala Pines and Elliott Aronson,
The Free Press 1998
Basically life goes sour, you lose your spark
you stop having fun and you stop being fun to
be with.
However we can also look at burnout
as a warning sign - in this sense it isan opportunity to re-evaluate andre-prioritise, to develop moresustainable and healthy
working methods. To
paraphrase R.D. Laing theinfamous 1960s Psychiatrist ‘It doesn’t have to be all
breakdown, it can also bebreakthrough.’
Burnout often results from working
too hard, from experiencing too much stressor too many stressful situations.

This can happen when we demand too much ofourselves, when we set ourselves idealistic orunrealistic standards, when we don’t feel able totake time out and are unable to delegate. In otherwords, when we don’t value ourselves, when we failto look after our own most basic needs.

What to look out for
Burnout happens slowly, over a long period oftime. It is expressed physically and/or mentally.
Symptoms of burnout can include:• A creeping feeling that activism is taking overyour life.
• Difficulty in making decisions.
• Inability to stay focused.
• Insomnia, difficulty in sleeping, or getting enoughsleep.
• A growing tendency to think negatively.
• Pervasive feelings of hopelessness.
• A loss of sense of purpose and energy.
• Physical indications of burnout include muscle
tension, restriction of blood flow to the tissues
and increased adrenalin buildup. Thesephysiological signs can lead to headache,backache and exhaustion• A loss of pleasure in food, friends or otheractivities that were once exciting and interesting a general sense of running on empty.
• Other warning signs of burnout include tempertantrums over trivial matters, not wanting to get
out of bed in the morning or becoming accident
prone.

What causes andcontributes to burnout?
Direct action can stir up the most extremeemotions. You can experience extraordinary things
very quickly. Many people find that a direct action
campaign can be one of the most important, lifechanging and empowering things in their lives. But
some, especially if a campaign is lost and what they
were seeking to protect is destroyed, say that it was
the worst experience ever, and that they couldn’t gothrough that pain again.

In short, direct action can at times be very
traumatic for most people. The best way to copewith all the stresses is to help and support one
another. Stress reaction begins with the release ofadrenaline, which gives temporary bursts of energy.
By continually pushing ourselves harder we canstay on a high, but this cannot last. This should be
followed by relaxing, curling up in a corner andrecuperating. If we don’t recuperate, ignoringmessages that something is wrong, then our bodies
and minds will resort to something painful ordramatic to get our attention. This is burnout.
We are neither inexhaustible machines norsoldiers who can consistently take loads of abuse. It
is positively healthy to get upset about it all - itwould be worrying if we were not affected. It is
important that people talk, giving one another time
to listen to worries and stresses. We need to makesure that we look after each other. And further that
we don’t forget the ‘strong’ people who may pretend
to be fine all the time. Don’t be afraid to let eachother know what you are feeling.
Burnout can be difficult to deal with, as the
person concerned may claim that they are fine. If
you notice people around you going close to theedge, try to ease their pressure without challenging
them. If you suspect you are burning out, don’t beafraid to ask for help.

Infighting:
One of the big causes of burnout is whengroups/people fall out, and exhaust their energies ininfighting. Infighting often comes from people understress who are looking for someone to blame andscapegoat. It can manifest itself as mistrust,bullying, intimidation, abuse and gossip. Pay
attention to the group dynamics. Be aware if people
are spreading malicious rumours and bad feeling;
they are either hyper-stressed or dodgy - this is acommon tactic used by infiltrators to destabilise
groups. Before getting suspicious, try talking to thisperson to see if there is any substance to theiraccusations. Paranoid witch hunts help no-one.
Above all be kind to each other, and to yourself.
Value each other.

Activist culture:
Research has highlighted that activist burnout
often appears to be caused by people setting
themselves unrealistically high standards, which
they are never quite able to meet, no matter how
hard they drive themselves. Taking the weight of theworld on your shoulders and not allowing yourself torest until the problems of the world have beensolved is a sure way to burn yourself out. See
www.parkc.org/activist.htm
What kind of a culture do such common
personal attitudes end up creating? As a movement
do we accept periods of low
motivation, while respecting
people for admitting that theyneed a break to recharge theirbatteries? Do we respect
activists who own up to the factthat they don’t have the time orenergy to complete tasks they
have taken on? Or rather, arerespect and kudos within ourcommunity earned through akind of devotion to the cause
which requires endlesspersonal sacrifice?
Is there a danger that theoften pressing and urgent
nature of activist work fosters awork ethic which in itself can be highly damaging?
While perhaps understandable, can a culture that
respects personal sacrifice ultimately be either
sustainable or effective?
The downsides of the activist culture of devotion
to the cause are that our community continuallyloses some of its most committed participants, while
there is also the tendency for new participants to bediscouraged from becoming involved.
If we want to become the transformations that
we wish to see in society at large, then surely it istime we accepted that relentlessly driving ourselves
and those around us is neither sustainable nor
desirable. We need to remember that changing theworld is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to paceourselves.

Strategies for avoiding
burnout - making ouractivism more sustainable
Our commitments need regular review andpruning to prevent overload. If you have taken on
something but can’t do it say so publicly, rather thanpeople thinking you are doing it when you are not.
Ensure that you take regular breaks while also
combining a variety of different activities - plan sometime off, before, during and after big actions or work
sessions - aiming for a balance that is right for you
and your needs.
What are the situations
that grind you down the most?
Can you create ways of dealing
with them?
Don’t feel you have to goon every action - if it doesn’tfeel right don’t do it.
It helps to know your own
motives. Sometimes people
come to activism as a way of
expressing anger and pain that
actually arises out of more
personal sources - an abusive
childhood, or difficult life
experiences. This is not to saythat you can’t have both, or thatfamily violence does not have political aspects.
However, in terms of sustainability, it is helpful toknow what is coming from where.
Long term involvement in emotionallydemanding situations is easier to cope with when
you have a way of releasing the emotions that thesituations create, regular emotional release throughsupport networks, co-counselling, sport, sex, beingin nature, basically things that take your mind off
work, they can help you bring out the best in
yourself and others around you.
Learn and practise the art of letting go - face up
to, accept and work through your pain, your stress,
your fears, while being compassionate with yourself,
until you come to the point where you can let go andmove on from them.